03.16.10

Summary: Prelude to a new campaign which strives to change the coverage of Windows-specific security problems

ONE of our readers is in the process of starting a new campaign he wishes to name “Let’s call out Windows” or simply “Call out Windows.” The purpose of this information campaign is to urge journalists to call Windows malware and Windows viruses just what they are: Windows malware and Windows viruses. Reporters have become knowingly negligent of the fact that these problems affect Windows and not all computers run Windows. It’s time to restore journalistic integrity and accuracy.

The following new post, titled “GNU/Linux: Don’t Call Them PC Viruses”, arrives in a very timely fashion and states:

I call that hogwash. The reason Microsoft Windows is so often successfully attacked is because of its flawed security design. I run FreeBSD Unix and Mandriva GNU/Linux on my PC systems. I keep my systems patched with up to date bug fixes and security fixes. I will not install software that I do not know from whence it originates. I do not run any anti-virus software and yet I will never get a “PC Virus” on these systems. There is no such thing as a “PC Virus”, call them “Microsoft Windows Viruses” or “GNU/Linux Viruses” or “Apple OS X Viruses” depending on the operating system which they successfully attack. Don’t call them “PC Viruses”.

2 Comments

No matter how polite you are, the Microsoft people will say you are rude. Reality offends them but not enough for them to fix their problems. What is really rude, however, is giving Microsoft a free pass so that good software is tarred with Microsoft’s problems. Journalist should not allow themselves to be used this way and quit acting rude towards everyone but Microsoft.

The lunacy of the EPO with its patent maximalism will likely go unchecked (and uncorrected) if Battistelli gets his way and turns the EPO into another SIPO (Croatian in the human rights sense and Chinese in the quality sense)

Another long installment in a multi-part series about UPC at times of post-truth Battistelli-led EPO, which pays the media to repeat the lies and pretend that the UPC is inevitable so as to compel politicians to welcome it regardless of desirability and practicability

Implementing yet more of his terrible ideas and so-called 'reforms', Battistelli seems to be racing to the bottom of everything (patent quality, staff experience, labour rights, working conditions, access to justice etc.)

"Good for trolls" is a good way to sum up the Unitary Patent, which would give litigators plenty of business (defendants and plaintiffs, plus commissions on high claims of damages) if it ever became a reality

Microsoft's continued fascination with and participation in the effort to undermine Alice so as to make software patents, which the company uses to blackmail GNU/Linux vendors, widely acceptable and applicable again